Adventures In "Darling Land"

Monday, March 25, 2013

There is snow on the ground outside………..but inside my house I am looking for some color and anything to chase these gray skies away. I am really ready for Spring!

A quick run to the dollar store and I put this little Spring flower arrangement together. Okay, it is silk and fake but it is color!

My hubby noticed it right away from his recliner in the living room and was appreciative to see it in the dining room. Apparently he is feeling the same as me.

Something else I have also been up to is my new crochet project. After watching a lot of Youtube videos and tutorials on the wave crochet stitch, I finally had some success! Actually, I am very proud of it. After all these years of only knowing how to do a double crochet granny square, I finally stepped out of my box. I decided to use a rainbow of colors to lift my spirits too! This little lap blanket has kept me from going crazy with this weather.

I hope all of you are finding ways to get through this “grayness”, at least all of you who live in areas where it is relentless. I am hearing we may be in for a dose of normal Spring weather this coming weekend….Just in time for Easter!

Monday, November 19, 2012

I whipped up a really quick scarf for my childhood friend’s birthday last week. He, like most of us that live in Ohio, are avid OSU Buckeye fans. I finished it about an hour before I left for his surprise birthday party.

He loved it! It will keep him warm for the big game this Saturday! Go Bucks! Beat Michigan!

My granddaughter found this multi color practice scarf that I knitted a few years ago. She thought it looked good with her new purple winter coat!

It’s going to be a quiet Thanksgiving for us this year. Just me, my husband and my oldest son for dinner. I miss the big family gatherings we used to have when my parents were still living. But, nothing stays the same …. family and friends move away….our love ones pass on. I guess we make new memories as time goes by. I think I might enjoy the peacefulness for a change though. I am still cooking…….. so that hasn’t changed!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

My life long, dearest friend lives there and we went to visit her and had a nice relaxing time. She lives minutes from Old St Charles so we spent Saturday afternoon going in and out of shops. Such a pretty place to visit! We have been there a number of times but it is always fun.

I took a few pics of some of the shops. It was a beautiful Fall day!

It was hard getting a photo without lots of cars and people in the way.

Had to stop to say “Hi” to Daniel Boone!

St Charles is on the Missouri River on the west side of St Louis. It’s famous for Lewis and Clark Expedition.

I had to run into this shop to see all the pretty colors of yarn!

After walking around St Charles, we headed for Granite City Restaurant for a late lunch. I had the Bruschetta Salad and Cheddar Ale soup…..delicious!

We also visited a fantastic antique mall in St Louis and I got a few little treasures for one of my Christmas trees.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I can’t believe it has been this long since my last post. I’ve looked at my blog several times this summer and wondered if I should just delete it. Life has not been the best the past few months. There has been family turmoil, health problems and even sudden passing of a family member in the prime of her life.

I have not had much enthusiasm to post about much of anything. So, I asked myself if it was something that I still wanted to do or even enjoyed doing. Well, I decided that I am going to give it another go…..but this time with some changes. When I first started my blog in 2008, I was undecided to what it should be named. I decided on Crystal Rose Cottage because at the time, roses, cottages were all the rage. I was really “into” that kind of thing. I still am, but I have also evolved over the last few years. Haven’t we all?

I decided to change the title of my blog because back when my oldest son was a young teenager, he would tease me about all the “cutesy” country decorating in the house and he would say to me “oh mom, it’s so darling….looks like darling land”. Of course he said it in a “tease your mom kind of way”.( I think I used the word “darling “ a lot too) So, I have changed my blog to “Adventures in Darling Land” because I guess that is what my blog is truly about. Even though the kids are grown and on their own, my home is still “darling” in my opinion and I do have adventures!

I hope I can make this blog a little fresher , a little more interesting and hopefully have more frequent updates.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Long time, no see. Literally, I know, I have been MIA. It has been a very busy winter and Spring. I hate to be one of those people that forces others to look at their vacation photos but it is all I have. Traveling has kind of taken over my life this Spring. Our first trip to Myrtle Beach was actually a very spontaneous Easter vacation with my entire family. So much fun and lots of good memories! I have not had a family vacation with my boys in many, many years. I jumped at the chance to experience this once again! Just a long, weekend but so worth the drive and time! This is a view from our balcony at Myrtle.

3 happy faces!

Myrtle simply being a pleasure vacation, our next trip was work related….we had to go to California! I had never been there, my husband had never been there! I had not flown in 33 years! Made me very anxious! But, this was something my husband “had” to do…no getting out of it. Ok, I was excited at the same time and decided to include some personal days just for us. Our 40th wedding anniversary is coming up so we decided this woud be something special for us. We started off the week in San Diego, at the Sheraton at the Marina. Gorgeous views from our balcony!

Well, actually the clouds were a little on the heavy side….quite gray and dismal…..for the next 3 days! This could not be California! It looked like Ohio! Actually the weather has been better in Ohio! Oh well, I was still in California but I was missing the sun after traveling all that way!

Meetings over….onto some sightseeing! The Midway. Love this statue! Look how big it is!

Across the Coronado Bridge…The Hotel del Coronado.

Very historic and famous for where the Marilyn Monroe movie “Some Like it Hot” was filmed.

Beautiful place to visit!

Got back in the rental car and drove it north of San Diego up the Pacific Coast Highway through La Jolla, Encinitas, Oceanside…..beautiful little towns along the ocean. Destination, Laguna Beach! Our little hotel above.

Beautiful place! A little bit of heaven on earth!

I have lots of videos of the ocean and beach …..it’s nice to be able to turn them on and transport myself back to that space and time! After visiting an old friend from my childhood, and doing a lot of shopping at the boutique shops, and eating gelato at outdoor café, the next day we headed over to San Juan Capistrano and the old mission. I took over 300 photos on my Iphone (forgot my digital camera, can you believe it?) In my next post I will show you those and the beautiful gardens that are inside! Stay tuned!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I don’t know about where you live but I know that where I live the weather has been pretty spectacular! I could not resist going out in the yard and picking some daffodils to add to my bouquet from my hubby that I already had. I love that it is now that time of year to be able to do that!

I am sorry that I have been very quiet so far this year. Not a lot of blogging going on around here. I guess I am in one of those moods where I just didn’t feel like sharing because I didn’t have a lot going on to share. I did not want to write anymore about my dental “thing” (btw, that has about one more month to go to the finale) because no one wants to hear about that. So I have been trying to keep my self content with my crochet lessons that I have been teaching myself. Actually I did learn to crochet years ago from my mother in law and I made quite a few granny afghans, granny baby blankets, granny this and that, but I wanted to do more than that. So I have been watching more Youtube on how to do other stitches. I also needed some color in my life!

Hence, my need to go yarn shopping! I love to look at all the colors in the stores! I think it got me through the winter, even though we have had such a mild one this year.

I already had a collection of yarn from years past…..

As you can see, I know how to do a granny square but I think I am “grannied out”….

On to something else more challenging!

Enjoy this wonderful weather while we have it! You never know, it might just stick around for a while!